112 March 2016 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
PRO ZONE MY BIG BREAK
thought it was a great idea to go really retro. It felt
like a throwback to the FM2, which of course it was.”
Jeremy had just eight days to scout for locations in
Scotland and hire people to feature in the brochure.
One stipulation was that he used non-professional
models. “They wanted to use real people. We had
to shoot a gamekeeper, a guy making barrels in a
distillery. The theme was tradition.” The shoot took
place in August and included a variety of locations,
from the Edinburgh Festival to the ruins of
Dunnottar Castle, where this image was taken.
Mastering the brief
T h i s pic t u re rea l ly tested Jeremy ’s ma ster y of t he
brief – a historic building in a dramatic location with
a non-professional model – and his skills as a casting
director! “That guy came on a weekend workshop
with me in Glencoe years ago, and he came down
to dinner dressed in his tartan and said, ‘Any excuse
to get dressed up in the kilt...’ So when I needed a
shepherd for that shot, I thought, well, he lives in
Scotland and he’s the ideal character for it.”
It was overcast when they reached Dunnottar. As
they waited for the light to break through, Jeremy
took a black-and-white portrait of his ‘shepherd’. For
the main image of the castle Jeremy used the Nikon
A F-S 28m m f/1.8G. Bot h pic t u res appea red i n t he
Nikon Df brochure, which Jeremy shot in its entirety,
except for the camera product pictures.
So how did this assignment rate among all of his
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up there! It was probably one of the biggest jobs, if
not the biggest job, I have ever done.”
Keith Wilson
I
n a c a reer spa n n i ng more t ha n 20 yea r s, Jeremy
Walker has worked with some of the biggest
brands in advertising, but one job ranks above all
the others as a milestone, and it was one he didn’t
even pitch for. “I just got an email from an ad agency
in Tokyo that I’d never heard of, saying that they had
t h i s broc hu re projec t, t hey ’d been g iven my na me by
Nikon, and would I be interested?”
The email came in April 2013, and after several
Skype calls and the signing of a non-disclosure
agreement, Jeremy was shown the camera that
he would be using to provide the pictures for the
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on Skype took him right back: “I really liked it: the
whole look of it, with the dials on the top plate. I
Jeremy Walker is one of the UK’s most-sought after
location photographers, with a client list that includes British
Airways, Mercedes and Vogue. He is a brand ambassador for
Nikon UK, and he also runs photography workshops. To see
more of his superb images visit http://www.jeremywalker.co.uk
My big break
Jeremy Walker
AUGUST, 2013 • DUNNOTTAR CASTLE, SCOTLAND • NIKON Df
Images: Jeremy Walker